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Anyone who has done a little bit of training with night vision realizes that mounting a PVS14 to a weapon is not the best move.
Several drawbacks to this-
1. You have to have the rifle up in your shoulder pocket to get a "look" through the PVS14. This causes arm fatigue. Looks cool in the movies but try it for 15 minutes in the backyard and let me know.
2. Can create safety issues. Your walking around with your couple other family members or members of your group- aka SHTF patrolling. You are #2 man. You hear a noise and you swing the rifle to get a "look" through the NV and in doing so have flagged/muzzle swept several in your party.
The final reason why this isn't a good idea is the dirty little secret you won't hear a lot. While the PVS14 is rated to 5.56 the truth is any repeated firing CAN (didn't say will) OVER TIME (i.e, not three rounds one time) damage the tube.
So for the survivalist/patriot this is a big concern because there won't be any more calling to order a new 14 cause your tube got damaged at that point.
And for the interim time period, understand that the tube is upwards of 90% of the cost of the system. So you want to protect your tube.
"But I got a good warranty and..."
Let me just say it is PLAINLY OBVIOUS to folks that work with Night vision when damage was done via too much recoil. Yes I've had several lie about that over the years- "I never shot it on anything." Yeah right, that's not what the techs are saying.
So for use with a PVS14 the options for aiming are:
1. An IR laser on the rifle which becomes the aiming point.
"But Robert, then I'll have a signature you know, the IR dot and I won't be a super stealthy squirrel operator!"
Well the realty of firing at night is even with a suppressor, you will ALWAYS HAVE SOME SORT OF SIGNATURE- it's called MUZZLE FLASH.
When the old SF Vietnam vets took us out in the swamps 30 years ago and taught us to shoot at night, they did so with NOTHING, iron sights, no illumination, etc. One of the guys asked why there was the little 2 inch "fishing" cyalume sticks taped to the center of the target. One of the trainers said "cause at night that's all you might have to aim at." It was to simulate MUZZLE FLASH. And we learned to shoot with iron sights and hit them.
2. "Passive aiming"
If your looking to avoid IR laser use this is the better option. This involves the use of super high riser mounts and co witnessing dot sights. I find this easier with a dual tube night vision set like a BNVD but it is doable with a monocular like a PVS14.
However both of these options aren't really LONG or longER distance options.
So for long distance we have two options-
1. A dedicated night vision weapon sight.
2. A "Clip on" night vision sight.
The clip on sight offers some advantages in that you mount it in front of your daylight scope- thereby negating the need to be "moving scopes", etc.
PVS30s are the main drug of choice here. Brand new they run into the $15 to $20,000 range. However Knights Armory does some refurbished units from time to time that they take back from military service. These come in under $6,000. and are the best bang for the buck in clip on devices.
Here is mine on a Bravo Company rifle with a (cheapie) Primary Arms 1-8 variable power scope. I'm really digging this BOG Death Grip tripod as well. Brushbeater had one of these at a class we went to recently and I really liked the setup and ordered one right after. You could see a lot of applications for this most especially in an urban environment.
The PVS30 works great and I went out again last night and was banging steel at 200 and 300 yards with it.
For shooting farther than 200 yards most people will want to move to either a dedicated NV scope or a clip on device. The clip on device offers the most flexibility IMO. Consider also that working in a group setting a group could purchase a PVS30 for use at an OP. Each person as they rotate to OP duty can throw a lever and put the PVS30 on their own rifle in front of their own day scope.
Several drawbacks to this-
1. You have to have the rifle up in your shoulder pocket to get a "look" through the PVS14. This causes arm fatigue. Looks cool in the movies but try it for 15 minutes in the backyard and let me know.
2. Can create safety issues. Your walking around with your couple other family members or members of your group- aka SHTF patrolling. You are #2 man. You hear a noise and you swing the rifle to get a "look" through the NV and in doing so have flagged/muzzle swept several in your party.
The final reason why this isn't a good idea is the dirty little secret you won't hear a lot. While the PVS14 is rated to 5.56 the truth is any repeated firing CAN (didn't say will) OVER TIME (i.e, not three rounds one time) damage the tube.
So for the survivalist/patriot this is a big concern because there won't be any more calling to order a new 14 cause your tube got damaged at that point.
And for the interim time period, understand that the tube is upwards of 90% of the cost of the system. So you want to protect your tube.
"But I got a good warranty and..."
Let me just say it is PLAINLY OBVIOUS to folks that work with Night vision when damage was done via too much recoil. Yes I've had several lie about that over the years- "I never shot it on anything." Yeah right, that's not what the techs are saying.
So for use with a PVS14 the options for aiming are:
1. An IR laser on the rifle which becomes the aiming point.
"But Robert, then I'll have a signature you know, the IR dot and I won't be a super stealthy squirrel operator!"
Well the realty of firing at night is even with a suppressor, you will ALWAYS HAVE SOME SORT OF SIGNATURE- it's called MUZZLE FLASH.
When the old SF Vietnam vets took us out in the swamps 30 years ago and taught us to shoot at night, they did so with NOTHING, iron sights, no illumination, etc. One of the guys asked why there was the little 2 inch "fishing" cyalume sticks taped to the center of the target. One of the trainers said "cause at night that's all you might have to aim at." It was to simulate MUZZLE FLASH. And we learned to shoot with iron sights and hit them.
2. "Passive aiming"
If your looking to avoid IR laser use this is the better option. This involves the use of super high riser mounts and co witnessing dot sights. I find this easier with a dual tube night vision set like a BNVD but it is doable with a monocular like a PVS14.
However both of these options aren't really LONG or longER distance options.
So for long distance we have two options-
1. A dedicated night vision weapon sight.
2. A "Clip on" night vision sight.
The clip on sight offers some advantages in that you mount it in front of your daylight scope- thereby negating the need to be "moving scopes", etc.
PVS30s are the main drug of choice here. Brand new they run into the $15 to $20,000 range. However Knights Armory does some refurbished units from time to time that they take back from military service. These come in under $6,000. and are the best bang for the buck in clip on devices.
Here is mine on a Bravo Company rifle with a (cheapie) Primary Arms 1-8 variable power scope. I'm really digging this BOG Death Grip tripod as well. Brushbeater had one of these at a class we went to recently and I really liked the setup and ordered one right after. You could see a lot of applications for this most especially in an urban environment.
The PVS30 works great and I went out again last night and was banging steel at 200 and 300 yards with it.
For shooting farther than 200 yards most people will want to move to either a dedicated NV scope or a clip on device. The clip on device offers the most flexibility IMO. Consider also that working in a group setting a group could purchase a PVS30 for use at an OP. Each person as they rotate to OP duty can throw a lever and put the PVS30 on their own rifle in front of their own day scope.
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